Title: Notes from the Field

Speaker: Mary Zicafoose

Nebraska artist Mary Zicafoose is a master at weft ikat, a complex resist-dye weaving process. Her work in ikat tapestry has been represented in the International Triennial of Tapestry, Lodz, Poland; Museo de Textil, Oaxaca, Mexico; China National Silk Museum, Hangzhou and the collections of over two dozen United States Embassy’s abroad. Her education includes a BFA from St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana, with graduate studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Nebraska. A three-time USA Artist Fellowship nominee, Zicafoose is co-director emeritus of the American Tapestry Alliance. Extensive exhibition, teaching, mentoring and lecture venues include the de Young Museum, San Francisco, Penland School of Craft, Penland, NC, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN and universities, conferences, Guilds, and textile programs worldwide. She is the author of “Ikat: The Essential Guide to Weaving Resist Dyed Cloth”, published by Penguin Random House.

Description: My favorite talks are those that I give to weavers. What is it that makes these moments when we come together so compelling and almost magical?

Is it the lineage we share, the equipment, materials, and techniques that we have in common that connect and feed us? Or is it the memory of the exotic cloth that predates us, the bolts of opulent fabrics that dressed prior generations that ignites in us a spark of collective memory and wonder? Notes from the Field is my story as a weaver. It celebrates the sources of my inspiration, the challenges of our field, and the unwavering focus of a lifetime spent creating behind the loom. It is a reminder that we, the weavers of the world, belong to a powerful legacy of creativity and Spirit that transcends time, place, politics, and even beauty.

My goal is to be an inspirational reminder that we hold a unique position in time, an irreversible responsibility, to not only uphold the bar of textile innovation on this planet, but to raise it higher.